Chicago Bears Oyo Minifigures!

It's NFL Sunday, kids! So I thought it would be a good time to show off yet another Chicago Bear collectible that I've managed to add to the shelf.

I present you all with the latest in minifigure fare from a practically unknown company called Oyo...

I've never even heard of these minifigures before, but they popped up in an eBay search a while back and after I sold my Funko custom zombie Batman, I had a little extra moola in the ol' Paypal account and just had to pull the trigger on these. I grabbed all the Bears figures they had, Jay Cutler, Matt Forte and Brian Urlacher.

Now, the first this I have to point out about these is how INSANELY EXPENSIVE they are! Seriously, they were $12.99 each! But, like I said, I was flush in the collectibles fund for the moment so I thought I'd splurge. But I gotta be honest, on any other day, i would have scoffed at that price and kept on walking.

But since I did plunk down the moola, let's take a look at them.

The first thing one notices about these is how they are riding a razor-thin line of trademark infringement with Lego minifigures. The heads, the hands, the upper torsos. It's stunning.

Still, they made some changes to the arms, making them sort of bent at the elbows, and gave them a clumsy execution of some sort of knee articulation, and maybe that's enough to stop them from getting sued.

This may sound like I hate them, which I swear I don't. They're totally adorable and their little accessories, like the helmet, football and water bottle (gotta stay hydrated!) really add to their fun factor.

And I gotta admit, the Matt Forte actually looks like Matt Forte.

Cute and fun, though they are, I can't actually say they are worth the $12.99 price tag. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I have them, but like I said, this splurge was a special occasion for me.

It'll be interesting to see if Oyo (whoever they are) are still around in a year or two. But in the meantime...

GO BEARS!

Yeah, I Broke Down and Bought a Mcfarlane Football Statue...

I couldn't help myself! Me and my co-worker, Amos, went to lunch the other day and we decided to stop in this sporting goods store looking for more NFL collectibles (he's a massive Dallas Cowboys fan), but the only thing I found was this Jay Cutler action figure (statue).

I know, I know, he's often a cranky jerk, and he's been out for the past few weeks, and most McFarlane figure suuuuuuuuuuuuuck, but he's our QB and it was on sale for $9.99 and sometimes you just gotta add to the collection.

After having finally bought one of these McStatues, I can't deny that the detail on these are riDORKulous! They even got his little five o'clock shadow on his face. No wonder people go nuts over these. Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into a maniacal McFarlane collector, but maybe one or two more won't kill me.

GO BEARS!

Vintage Starting Lineup Mike Singletary!

I gotta give a shout-out to my fellow toy-collecting homeboy, Tony Fowler, for hooking em up with my very first Starting Lineup figure. Tony was digging around his old toy stash, looking for a Starting Lineup Chicago bears helmet for me (seriously, I was just looking for one of the little mini helmets) when lo and behold, he unearths one with a Mike Singletary figure still attached to it!

Any Bears fan knows that Mike Singletary was a legendary defensive lineman that was part of the 1985 Super Bowl champions team aside such legends as William "The Refrigerator" Perry, Jim McMahaon and of course, Sweetness himself, Walter Payton.

I've never owned a Starting Lineup figure before, and by today's standards, they're pretty lame. But I know they were pretty big in their day. I do like the GSH on the sleeve. That's a nice detail.

I also like the fact that their helmets were removable. Something that McFarlane Toys, the makers of the current NFL figures, would do well to take a lesson from.

And not to nit-pick a figure that has all of four points of articulation, but I think that they really should have included his classic mustache. It looks like they molded it, but didn't paint it. Weird. I also wish they would have included the thin white boarder around the helmet logo.

Listen to me. I sound like a total ingrate. But despite its tiny faults, I really do love this figure and was pleased as punch that Tony thought of me. Of course, now this means that I've got to hunt down all the other Starting Lineup Bears figures. Oh, what I would give for a Walter Payton.

Anyway, I'm sure good ol' Singletary is going to fit in nicely with the rest of my Chicago defensive line action figures.

GO BEARS!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers Weekly Theme: How to Destroy the Death Star

This week's topic: Write a step-by-step guide on how to do something. This could be a real world project or a fantastical one, so do with it as you will.

All too easy...

Step 1: Incur the wrath of the Empire.

Step 2: Chill out on your home planet until the Death Star comes to destroy it.

Step 3: Wait for it to get a little closer...

Step 4: ...and a little closer...

Step 5: ... and a little closer... until it's almost within firing range...

Step 6: ... and then POW! Let Brian Urlacher sack it!

Please see the complete list of posts from the Extraordinary League of Bloggers and show their blogs some love. Thanks!

Yooooooooooooooo Fridge!

Oh boy do I have an awesome toy to talk about today. This one comes to the Nerdatorium via a trade I made with the ever generous Jboy Pacman from Revenge From the Cosmic Ark.

In fact, we only were supposed to trade one figure for one figure, but you all know how Jboy rolls with his toy care packages. My sincerest thanks, Jboy! You do the Horde proud!

Anyway, I'm gonna cut to the chase and talk about one of the greatest G.I. Joe figures ever released. i'm talkin' about William "The Refridgerator" Perry!

"The Fridge" played for the Chicago Bears from '85-'93, and was responsible for scoring the winning touchdown in Super Bowl XX against the Patriots. I was 12 years old at the time and deep in the throes of Bears fever, which I attribute to the catchiness of the Super Bowl Shuffle.

I have no idea why G.I. Joe decided to make a figure of The Fridge. I guess they did that occasionally, like when they made one of Sgt. Slaughter. By the time this figure came out, I was on the very tail end of playing with toys, but I remember a kid in my neighborhood having one and being very jealous of it. It's been years since I've seen one up close and now that I get a second look, this figure is beyond the level of awsomeness that I anticipated.

Just look at the perfect likeness (sorry for the blurry pic)...

They even got his gap in his teeth!

I do wish that Hasbro was able to put him in Bears colors, but that was probably a licensing nightmare. Instead, they gave his his signature number 72, but made the color scheme of the jersey red, white and blue.

I have no idea what's up with the green and orange pants, though...

One of the zaniest aspects of this figure is Fridge's bizarre "weapon" which appears to be some sort of iron or steel football on the end of a length of cable, attached to a handle. Soooooooooooooooooo strange.

As a toy fan, a G.I. Joe fan, and a Bears fan, this figure is a triple threat. I saw that Jboy mention how he had always wanted a Remco Warlord figure (the figure I traded for the Fridge), so I find it poetic that we both got something that fullfilled a longtime toy-collecting dream. Or at the very least, knocked an item off of our wishlist.

The Fridge represents a time when football players were still heroes, giants that walked among their fellow greats of the gridiron. When they were worthy of becoming Real American Heroes.

Unlike a certain whiny little crybaby quarterback I'm currently pretty ticked off at....

"Son, you may be talented, but you ain't no Jim McMahon."

And now you know.

Chicago Bears Gumball Machine Figure!

I've written extensively on those adorable little round-headed gashapon (vending machine toys) figures based on our favorite Marvel Comics heroes and villains before (you can read the whole post HERE), so I'm no strangers to these little spheres of fun.

But I was completely stoked to find the same style of figures based on our favorite NFL football teams!

I spotted some at my local grocery store and plunked in $4 worth of quarters in an attempt to get a Chicago Bears figure, alas, to no avail. So I sort of cheated and immediately went home, found one on eBay for $1 and bought it quicker than Matt Forte running down the gridiron.

I loooooooooooooooooooove this little dude!

I do wish that they were a little more detailed, like, maybe some numbers on the chest or some team-specific stripes on the uniform, but whatever. It was a buck. I know they have to keep production costs down, so I get it.

I will NOT be collecting all of these. I just wanted the Bears one. But he will get added to the Bears shelf and hold a spot right up front and center.

GO BEARS!